Anonymity

by John Mullan (Princeton; $22.95)

In England, the use of the word “anonymous” to describe a literary work dates only from the sixteenth century, but by the end of the eighteenth seventy per cent of all novels were published “in secret.” Mullan traces the flourishing of the practice in this detailed history, arguing that concealment was only rarely the aim. Anonymity and pseudonymity might be invoked out of fear or diffidence: in 1555, one punishment for treasonous writings was the loss of the right hand; “modest” women authors were long identified simply as “A Lady.” But anonymity could also incite interest: Jonathan Swift constructed elaborate hoaxes, “more promotional than shy,” to veil his authorship of “Gulliver’s Travels,” and the guessing game surrounding the true identity of Currer Bell, the professed author of “Jane Eyre,” was such that, in its first year of publication, reviews outnumbered copies sold. ♦

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